March for Life returns to DC with new post-Roe v. Wade focus

One yr in the past, the once a year March for Life protest in opposition to prison abortion befell in Washington amid a temper of undisguised triumph. With a sparkling conservative majority on the Supreme Court, heaps of marchers braved bitterly cold weather to rejoice the reputedly inevitable fall of Roe v. Wade.

Now, with the constitutional right to abortion no longer the guideline of the land, the March for Life returns Friday with a new cognizance. Instead of concentrating their interest at the Supreme Court, the marchers plan to goal the constructing immediately throughout the street: the U.S. Capitol.

Movement leaders say they plan to warn Congress against making any try to curtail the multiple anti-abortion laws imposed closing year in a dozen different states.

“This year could be a somber reminder of the millions of lives misplaced to abortion in the beyond 50 years, but additionally a party of how far we’ve got come and where we as a movement want to consciousness our effort as we input this new technology in our quest to guard existence,” Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life Education and Defense Fund, said in a declaration.Some movement leaders additionally hope to plant seeds in Congress for a capacity federal abortion restriction down the line. Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, stated she envisions an eventual “federal minimum general” cut-off line which include 13 weeks of pregnancy and then abortion might now not be approved in any nation. Dannenfelser’s state of affairs might still go away person states unfastened to impose their personal, stricter measures, including a complete ban.That final ambition is an admitted longshot due to the fact even if it passes the newly Republican-controlled House of Representatives, it would most in all likelihood fail in the Democratic-held Senate.

“We are aware of it’s not going to happen this session, but that is the start,” Dannenfelser stated. “It’s (Congress’) duty to pay attention to the will of the people.”

In permit programs to the National Park Service, protest organizers estimated 50,000 participants this year, about the same size as previous marches.

In the absence of Roe v. Wade’s federal protections, abortion rights have grow to be a country-through-country patchwork.

Since June, near-general bans on abortion were carried out in Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. Legal demanding situations are pending towards several of these bans.Elective abortions also are unavailable in Wisconsin, due to felony uncertainties faced by abortion clinics, and in North Dakota, in which the lone hospital relocated to Minnesota.

Bans surpassed with the aid of lawmakers in Ohio, Indiana and Wyoming have been blocked by means of kingdom courts at the same time as felony challenges are pending. And in South Carolina, the country Supreme Court on Jan. Five struck down a ban on abortion after six weeks, ruling the restriction violates a country constitutional proper to privacy.

But different states have witnessed unexpected pushback on the difficulty. Voters in Kansas and Kentucky rejected constitutional amendments that would have declared there’s no proper to abortion; Michigan voters approved an change enshrining the right to abortion in the kingdom charter.